


Why

by Megpie71



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-28
Updated: 2013-03-28
Packaged: 2017-12-06 17:36:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/738306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megpie71/pseuds/Megpie71
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>I was fifteen.</i> Riku looks back, and tries to explain his reasons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Why

I don't know why I was so jealous of Sora. I suppose it might have been because everything just seemed so easy for him. He'd wake up, meet us at the island, knock around with Kairi, Selphie, Tidus, Wakka and myself, always smiling and having fun. Nothing strange happening to him. No weird dreams in the night. No questions about who he was, or where he was, or what might happen next. Nope, just good ol' happy-go-lucky Sora.

Me, I was always the different one. They kept saying how good I was at duelling, but that was because I had to fight. I'm a year older than Sora, Kairi and Tidus, a couple years younger than Wakka. So I grew up training with Wakka, rather than fighting the younger ones. There's a name for a boy who fights younger kids: bully. So I wouldn't challenge them, they'd challenge me. Another thing Sora had easy.

I was ten when Kairi arrived. Before her, the only girl who'd showed up at the island was Selphie, and she wasn't really one of the gang, if you know what I mean. I mean, she'd be there, hanging around on the edge of things, but it was always me and Sora, and Tidus and Wakka as teams. Selphie kept score, or tagged along, or teased us all and got teased back. Five of us growing up together, and then along came Kairi and it all just sort of clicked. Suddenly it was me and Sora and Kairi on our team.

It was okay for a couple of years. Then we all started changing. Kairi first - although not too much - and then me. I started getting these dreams at night. You know, the ones about sex. Yeah. Those ones. And some of the dreams would have Sora in them, and some of them would have Kairi, and then one of them had Sora and Kairi but it didn't have me. I suppose that's when things started going bad.

I just couldn't get that picture out of my head, you know? The two of them together, and me locked out. That's when the duels with Sora became a bit more serious, when I stopped holding back. And the kid was good. I mean it, he was really good, even if he did come second a lot of the time.

Kairi says what she saw was I got a lot more broody. I suppose I did. I'd be thinking about my options, when we all finished growing up. Well, it was going to be either Sora or me who married Kairi, and half the time I wasn't sure whether I wanted to step aside or fight like hell for her. So I started thinking about what I could do, started wondering if there wasn't more to life than just the Destiny Islands.

Then I started getting the other dreams. The ones about the darkness. The ones that were testing me for the Keyblade. Well, I know that's what they were _now_. Then, they were just really weird dreams I was having. And the two dreams got all tangled up together, and sometimes I was trying to help Sora and sometimes I was trying to kill him, and I wasn't sleeping too well as a result.

The raft was my idea. I figured maybe if we could get away, I wouldn't have to make that choice. But then the darkness came.

It all seemed so simple in the dark. I wasn't afraid of the dark, and that made me stronger, made me better, and Sora was still a kid, so it was up to me to save Kairi and show them both who was the best.

I was fifteen.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published on InsaneJournal 18 FEB 2008.


End file.
